Narratives are personal stories that help enrich the reader’s understanding of a time period, person, place, or event. These are first-person views of history taken from personal recollections, memoirs, diaries, and oral histories.

Information included in this section is not fact checked by the Encyclopedia staff. The author of the Narrative is entirely responsible for its content.

As a nineteen-year-old man doing time in both Cummins and Tucker Units in 1969–1971, I received treatment that was more than any human being should have to endure at the hands of another. Rape, torture, beatings, and starvation all went hand in hand for me. Now forty years later, I still wake up screaming in the middle of the night. I am told that very little has changed since then. May God help those who survived those years and those who brought the cruelty to them. It is time for change in our world.